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Eyewitness Egypt: Feminist Nawal El Saadawi --'No discrimination between men and women ...That’s what women and men are saying'

January 31, 2011 -- Democracy Now! -- Renowned feminist and human rights activist Nawal El Saadawi was a
political prisoner and exiled from Egypt for years. Now she has returned
to Cairo, and she joins us to discuss the role of women during the last
seven days of unprecedented protests. "Women and girls are beside boys
in the streets," El Saadawi says. "We are calling for justice, freedom
and equality, and real democracy and a new constitution, no
discrimination between men and women, no discrimination between Muslims
and Christians, to change the system... and to have a real democracy."

AMY GOODMAN: We go back right now to Egypt. Joining
us on the phone is one of Egypt’s most renowned human rights activists,
Nawal El Saadawi. A well-known feminist, psychologist, writer, former
political prisoner in Egypt, she lived in exile for years due to
numerous death threats. Nawal El Saadawi joins us on the line from
Cairo.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Your feelings today in
the midst of this popular rebellion against the Mubarak regime, calling
on Mubarak to leave? Do you agree?

NAWAL EL SAADAWI:
We are in the streets every day, people, children, old people,
including myself. I am now 80 years of age, suffering of this regime for
half a century. And you remember, Mubarak is the continuation of Sadat.
And both Sadat and Mubarak, you know, their regime worked against the
people, men and women. And they created this gap between the poor and
rich. They brought the so-called business class to govern us. Egypt
became an American colony. And we are dominated by the US and Israel.
And 80 million people, men and women, have no say in the country.

And
you see today that people in the streets for six days, and they told
Mubarak to go. He should have gone, if he respects the will of the
people. That’s democracy. Because what’s democracy? It’s to respect the
will of the people. The people govern themselves. So, really, we are
happy.

But what I would like to tell you, the US government,
with Israel and Saudi Arabia and some other powers outside the country
and inside the country, they want to abort this revolution. And they are
creating rumours that, you know, Egypt is going to be ruined, to be
robbed, and they are also preventing—we don’t have bread now, and the
shops are using this to raise the price. So they are trying to frighten
us.

They have two strategies: to frighten the people, so we say, "Oh, we
need security, we need Mubarak", because people are living in fear. But
when I go to the streets, there are no fear, you know, but when I stay
at home and listen to the media, I feel, "What’s going to happen?" But
when I go to the streets, to Midan Tahrir, and see the people, the young
people, the old people, the men, I feel secure, and I believe that the
revolution succeeded. So, they are trying to abort the power outside and
inside. But we will win.

AMY GOODMAN: And Nawal
El Saadawi, you often hear in the United States, "Is this going to be
like the Iranian Revolution?" not talking about throwing out the
dictator so much, but a fundamentalist revolution. Your response? Nawal?

NAWAL EL SAADAWI:
They are frightening us by the Ikhwan Muslimin, and that if
Mubarak—they tried for years to tell us that "Who protects us from the
fundamentalists, like Khomeini and Iraq? It’s Mubarak." You know, and
this is not true. This revolution, the young people who started the
revolution and who are continuing to protect it, they are not political,
ordinary young men and women. They don’t belong to the right or the
left, or Muslim. There was not a single Islamic religious slogan in the
streets. Not one. They were shouting for justice, equality, freedom, and
that Mubarak and his regime should go, and we need to change the system
and bring people who are honest. Egypt is living in corruption, false
elections, oppression of women, of young people, unemployment. So the
revolution came, it was too late. This revolution is too late, but
anyway, it came. So—

AMY GOODMAN: Nawal El Saadawi, you have been arrested how many times under previous regimes?

NAWAL EL SAADAWI:
Sadat. Sadat put me in prison only. But I came out from prison with
bars to a prison with no bars. I am living in Cairo in exile. I am
censored. I cannot write in Al-Ahram or the big media. I write only one article every Tuesday in Al-Masry Al-Youm.

AMY GOODMAN: And we only have 30 seconds, but I wanted to ask you about the role of women in this rebellion, women and girls.

NAWAL EL SAADAWI:
Women and girls are beside boys in the streets. They are—and we are
calling for justice, freedom and equality, and real democracy and a new
constitution, no discrimination between men and women, no discrimination
between Muslims and Christians, to change the system, to change the
people who are governing us, the system and the people, and to have a
real democracy. That’s what women are saying and what men are saying.

AMY GOODMAN:
Nawal El Saadawi, I want to thank you for being with us, well-known
feminist, psychologist. She ran for president in Egypt, speaking to us
from Cairo.